We finally figured out why Google’s Pixel looks so much like an iPhone

When Google unveiled its new Pixel and Pixel XL smartphones last month, several things were immediately obvious. For example, in light of the Galaxy Note 7 debacle Samsung was suffering through, it was obvious that Google’s new phones would be the best option out there for Android enthusiasts seeking out the best premium smartphones money can buy. It was also obvious that deep Google Assistant integration was going to be a huge benefit over rival handsets.

On the other hand, it was also obvious that in terms of design, the new Pixel and Pixel XL were so familiar that it was almost uncomfortable. In a nutshell, they looked exactly like iPhones, but with a peculiar glass panel slapped on the back. The explanation behind Google’s decision reuse Apple’s iPhone design has been something of a mystery ever since the phones debuted, but now we finally know exactly how it happened.

When Google unveiled its new Pixel phones, company executives repeatedly sought to make it clear that these phones were designed solely by Google, inside and out, with no input from the company’s manufacturing partner HTC. This seemed odd, of course, because the Pixel looks suspiciously similar to HTC’s recent iPhone copycats. But hey, Google said that the company did its own thing, so we took Google’s word for it.

As it turns out, HTC apparently wasn’t involved in the design at all, just like Google said. A newly discovered video posted recently on YouTube by PeripateticPandas gives the world a behind the scenes look at how Google created the Pixel phone. We won’t spoil the fun — the full video is embedded below.